Dental adhesives containing a filler are known. EP-A 0 335 645 discloses an adhesive composition comprising a monomer mixture containing a vinyl monomer having an acidic group in the molecule and a vinyl monomer copolymerizable with said vinylmonomer, a filler, and a self-curing initiator system. The adhesive composition of EP-A 0 335 645 is handled and stored as a two-pack system. Namely, liquid components and powder components are independently filled in two different packs, and at the curing and bonding step, necessary amounts of the liquid and powder components are taken out from the packs and they are kneaded together. The adhesion strength to dentine obtained are less than 1.9 MPa.
Dental materials based on polyfunctional amides are known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,953,832 which contain specific polymerizable amides and optionally strongly acidic polymerizable monomers such as dipentaerythritol pentamethacryloyloxy dihydrogenphosphate. Filler containing compositions are suggested. However, U.S. Pat. No. 6,953,832 does not disclose a self-adhesive composite.
Dental composites are used to replace natural tooth material. Accordingly, dental composite materials are required to provide a high mechanical resistance over the entire lifetime of the dental restoration after curing. In order to provide mechanical strength and for reducing polymerization shrinkage of the composite, dental composites contain a large amount of filler. Due to the large amount of filler, the viscosity of the uncured composite is usually high and adhesion of the cured composite to dentine is low. Due to the high viscosity, a highly filled dental composite can usually not be provided as a two-pack composition because reliable homogeneous mixing of the packs would be problematic prior to the application of the composite.
Moreover, an increase of the adhesive properties of the composite by incorporating acidic adhesive monomers into the composite deteriorates the shelf life of a one-pack composite prior to curing due to the hydrolysis of polymerizable monomers by acidic group containing components. Moreover, after curing, acidic groups will remain in the bulk of the cured composite so that the acidity is present throughout the lifetime of the cured composite restoration representing a continuing potential for activation of hydrolyzable groups.
In order to avoid the formation of a marginal gap by providing an adhesive bond between the cured composite and the tooth, composites are usually applied to a dental surface treated with a bonding agent, such as a dental adhesive. The application of a dental adhesive represents an additional step requiring additional time and representing a source for problems due to an additional interface between the adhesive and the composite.